Today’s Gospel (Matthew 14, 22-33) is a powerful reminder that we all need to call on Jesus in the storms facing us – both in the Church and in our daily living. We are always encouraged to approach Jesus with a strong faith in His willingness and His ability to calm the storms that confront us.
Church history shows us how Jesus saved His Church from the storms of persecution in the first three centuries, from the storms of heresies in the 5th and 6th centuries, from the storms of unprecedented “protesting” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the storms of sex abuse scandals of the clergy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We need to realize that it is the presence of Jesus which has given us peace and restored us to His harmony, even in the wildest of these storms.
On a more personal level, we all encounter the storms of anxiety and worries about the present and the future: the storm of Covid-19; storms of sorrow; storms of doubt, tension, and uncertainty; storms of anger and despair; storms of temptations; and storms in family relationships. Where do we look to find Christ’s presence and peace in the midst of all of this? What are we doing to enhance and strengthen a personal relationship with Him? How are we making our life of prayer stronger each day? How often do we crack open our Bibles? What are we doing to become more active participants in the Mass?
Food for thought this week: Are we willing to imitate the short prayer of the sinking St. Peter in Matthew 14? Are we ready to make his prayer our own? “Lord, save me!” It is a prayer much like the prayer of the mother of a possessed girl: “Lord, help me!” or the blind man’s prayer: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” or the repentant sinner’s prayer: “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!” Are we willing to add these to the repertoire of short prayers we already know so well, like the “Our Father,” “Hail Mary,” and “Glory be…?”
